NEWS SWEDEN: Swedish Arvid Rosengren took home the gold in yesterday’s prestigious Meilleur Sommelier du Monde competition, held in Argentina. He is thus both the reigning European and world champion.

Arvid Rosengren, educated in Swedish Grythyttan and having worked in Stockholm, London and Copenhagen, is currently living and working in New York, where he is sommelier at Soho restaurant Charlie Bird, as well as running King Street Sommeliers, a private wine service. Every Nordic country was represented in the competition, including another Swede, Robert Andersson, and the Dane Christian Thorsholt Jacobsen, who finished sixth. Making it all the way to the podium along with Rosengren were David Biraud, France, and Julie Dupoy-Young, hailing from France but representing Ireland.

The finalists were put through a wide variety of tests, such as geographical knowledge, food and wine pairing, blind tasting and decanting a magnum bottle of young Malbec. Rosengren emerged victorious, adding charisma to his impeccable service. This is Sweden’s second sommelier world champion title, since Andreas Larsson won in 2007.

NEWS NORDIC: The next chef to take the reins at Dubai restaurant Enigma is none other than Björn Frantzén, owner of Restaurant Frantzén in Stockholm, Sweden. Enigma will be hosted by four different chefs during 2016.

The first chef to settle in at the restaurant in January, located in luxury hotel Palazzo Versace, was Quique Dacosta, who normally delights guests at the three-star restaurant that bears his name in Valencia, Spain. His pop-up was named “Vanguard”. Björn Frantzéns concept will be named “Journey of a Nordic Chef” and run at Enigma from April 20th through June 30th. The next two chefs to take over Enigma are as-of-yet unnamed.

– I am very excited and at the same time humbled to bring my cuisine to Dubai, and I see this as an opportunity to show and introduce the flavours of the Nordic countries to Dubai's cosmopolitan residents and travellers. I’m looking forward to the opportunity to work with the professional team at Enigma, at the magnificent Palazzo Versace Dubai., says Frantzén in a statement.

NEWS NORDIC: Celebrated food philosopher, turning farm-to-table upside down – for the tenth year running, White Guide proudly presents the Global Gastronomy Award. The distinction is awarded to a chef or another gastronomical dignitary of international stature at the apex of his or her orbit, serving as a role model and inspiration within contemporary gastronomy, taking it forward – and beyond.

“For sharing his deep insights into the challenges we face regarding food sustainability and for his many initiatives to retrieve lost flavor treasures and conceive of new ones. Long celebrated as the father of the farm-to-table movement, he has realized that the current approach to local ecological sourcing is not enough to secure health and wellbeing – for us or our habitats. We need to rethink our entire approach to food, based on nature’s own laws and cycles. It is not about nostalgia – but strict science.”

WHITE GUIDE NORDIC: Our beautiful, easy-to-use, complete White Guide Nordic app is here – and it’s free. Read reviews of all the top 300 restaurants in the Nordic countries, browse by city, country or name, or use the interactive map – perfect for travel.

The 2016 edition of the White Guide Nordic was launched a week ago, and is the only restaurant guide to completely cover all of the best Nordic restaurants, including those located in places less traveled. This year’s edition is expanded both in number of restaurants and regions covered, and now includes Greenland and the Faroe Islands. You’ll find reviews of, points awarded to and information on every restaurant, our newsfeed with independent reporting on Nordic restaurant news and a map for interactive browsing or finding restaurants near you.

NEWS SWEDEN: At the White Guide Gala, held today at the Royal Opera in Stockholm, awards in several categories were handed out in connection with the release of this year’s White Guide Sweden.

Extraordinary performances and achievements were celebrated, together with a special person: the restaurant guest. The latter by focusing on the overall experience – without diners, neither restaurants nor restaurant guides would be here.

WHITE GUIDE NORDIC: The second edition of The White Guide Nordic was launched today in Helsinki. More than 200 journalists and restaurateurs took part in the event. The new guide covers the 300 best restaurants in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands and now Greenland.

Just as last year, the evaluation of the restaurant scene has resulted in a Top 30 list. The list is topped byNoma in Copenhagen, making this their second year as the highest-scoring Nordic restaurant; one more accolade in their long list of achievements. The following restaurants are new entries on the Top 30 list since last year:

This year the guide covers 54 restaurants in Finland, 56 restaurants in Norway (including Svalbard), 92 restaurants in Sweden, 85 restaurants in Denmark (including Greenland and the Faroe Islands) and 17 restaurants in Iceland. This edition also gives a sneak peek into the gastronomy of the Baltics in an appendix on 25 Estonian restaurants produced by Flavours of Estonia according to the White Guide’s testing criteria.

WHITE GUIDE NORDIC: The first number in the numerical pair to the right of each restaurant specifies the number of food points out of a possible 40. The second number indicates the -restaurant’s total out of 100 possible. Restaurants rated as International Masterclass and Masterclass are ranked according to their food total and then their overall total.

WHITE GUIDE: The best restaurants in the Nordics will be revealed on Monday, November 16, when the second edition of The White Guide Nordic is launched. This time we’ve upped our game. The book covers more than 300 restaurants in the ­Nordic countries, and we’ve travelled to new corners of the region to find the best ­places to recommend for your next trip. These new areas include Ilulissat and Nuuk in Greenland, Rovaniemi in northern Finland, and Akureyri and the ­Westman Islands in Iceland.

This year the guide covers 54 restaurants in Finland, 56 restaurants in Norway (including Svalbard), 92 restaurants in Sweden, 85 restaurants in Denmark ­(including Greenland and the Faroe Islands) and 17 restaurants in Iceland. This edition also gives a sneak peek into the gastronomy of the Baltics, in an appendix on 25 Estonian restaurants, produced by Flavours of Estonia according to the White Guide’s testing criteria.

All restaurants are rated and grouped by country, category and location. The launch of the White Guide Nordic 2016 edition will be held in Helsinki on November 16th and will be sold through established channels, in addition to being distributed via partners. Besides the printed guide, e-book and the website, it will also be available as an app, available from App Store from November 17th.

FEATURE: Who is getting top chefs from around the world come to Copenhagen to make tacos? That would be Rosio Sanchez, a young with a mission: To bring authentic Mexican flavours to Europe and to make it available to anyone.

Paco Méndez, Shinobu Namae, Fabian von Hauske, Jorge Vallejo, Zaiyu Hasegawa, Kris Yenbamroong, Mario Espinosa. All are names of chefs from top restaurants around the world who have made their way to Copenhagen this summer. What do they have in common with chefs Lisa Lov, Matt Orlando, Lars Williams and Jonathan Tam? Well, they have all spent a day making tacos at Copenhagen market hall Torvehallerne.

Why? They are all friends of Rosio Sanchez.

She opened her taquería Hija de Sanchez in June, and people have been lining up since day one. The day I meet her is no exception, even if the lines are not nearly as long as on the opening day, when they reached all the way to the road 50 meters away, Sanchez tells me.
– The first day was fun, but it was also a disaster. People waited about an hour in line and then twenty minutes to get their food. We had too many menu options, and the lines got longer and longer. We had an idea of how we were supposed to work and what our system of tickets should be. But things never play out the way you think. I’d only been working in restaurants, never in a taquería. So how would I know?, says Sanchez.

WHITE GUIDE: For the ninth year running, White Guide proudly presents the White Guide Global Gastronomy Award laureate. The distinction is given to a creative chef of international prominence, who is at the apex of his or her professional orbit and who has become an example and inspiration within and for contemporary gastronomy. This is the first time a Swedish chef receives the award.

Magnus Nilsson awarded the White Guide Global Gastronomy Award 2015

“A Northern light gleaming far and beyond”

The jury’s motivation: “For having developed a truly unique and personal gastronomy, gleaming as a Northern light far and beyond, extracting the innermost secrets of his local woods, fields and waters, with the deepest understanding of his terroirs, their potential and margins of sustainability, with the doorway ajar to the parallel universe of microbiology, all delivered in a stunning restaurant culture bridging history and future, local with global, science with art – seasoned with poetry and humour.”

Fäviken Magasinet is located in the Northern part of Sweden, close to Åre, Sweden’s foremost winter sports destination. The restaurant at the resort-like Fäviken estate is housed in an old dairy farm. Since opening in 2009, the restaurant has gained international fame for its ultra-local gastronomy and is now ranked #19 on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list.

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Top 30 Nordic List

With over 100 Masters Level restaurants, the Nordic countries offer a wide variety of excellent culinary experiences. The Top 30 are all at the Global Masters level and they include some of the best restaurants in the world.